


Before Crowns of Blue and Red

by Kakushigo



Series: Unending Reign [1]
Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Reisi and Mikoto grow up together, and shit gets real
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2785406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kakushigo/pseuds/Kakushigo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From children they came, to adults they grew,<br/>One wild and untamed; the other restrained,<br/>One who was red flame and the other was blue,<br/>Never far apart until the heart failed.</p>
<p>Vibrant and alive when at another’s side,<br/>The red and blue in perfect complement,<br/>Separation they refused to abide,<br/>Even when faced with despotic comment.</p>
<p>But fate had wrought plans to take them apart,<br/>To make anew their ancient history,<br/>Of peace was blue so red’s wars he did thwart,<br/>But with one's death, fate finds no victory.</p>
<p>This be their story, from their eve to end.<br/>This be their story, of kings blue and red.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a co-authored story, so it will be updated when two schedules collide (which isn't that often). However, it'll probably still be updated more often then my other stories ^-^. We decided not to put any pairings, there are some implications of Mikoto/Reisi though. It should not detract from the story if you don't ship Mikoto/Reisi.
> 
> This is essentially what happens when you go "What if."  
> Liberal application of tissues is encouraged during some of these chapters (they're a little on the angst-y side).
> 
> This is read more like a series of snapshots of their life, not a straight novella. Have fun! (And keep those tissues on hand...)

Before they were Kings, they were the best of friends.  The crowns of blue and red broke that, shattered it into impossibility, but Reisi and Mikoto have been nothing but stubborn since the day they were born.

The orphan boy and the sick shrine boy, whose paths should never have crossed, forged one of the most powerful relationships the Kings or Japan would ever see.  Their trials were not easy and their story seemed built on misfortune, but they never gave up.  Even death itself could only slow them down but never stop them.  

So this, this is their story.  From start to finish, with detours and twists and turns, and like every story it has an ending.  Not a happy or perfect one, but an ending nonetheless.

* * *

 

**Age 14, Munakata Shrine**

“Yuta-nii? Where are kaa and tou-san?” Reisi asks his older brother curiously as he carefully steps in Yuto’s way.

Yuta doesn’t even pause in his sweeping of the shrine steps as he answers, “Ojii-san sent them off the shrine for the day like you suggested.” The younger boy stops trying to trip his brother and stands stock still.

“Ojii-san actually let them take the whole day off?” The surprise in his voice is palpable and if Yuta were any less serious he might have laughed.

“Their twenty-fifth anniversary only comes around once, otouto.” He states dryly.

“I know...but ojii-san seems to eternally disapprove of my ideas.” Reisi mutters as he now tries to instead steal Yuta’s broom.

“Apparently even you have a good idea once in a blue moon.”  Yuta replies, playfully ruffling his younger brother’s hair as he ignores Reisi's attempts at broom stealing.

Reisi frowned and batted away his older brother’s hand, “Quiet.  When will Mikoto get here?”

“You mean when will your boyfriend get here?” Yuto teases his younger sibling fondly.

“We’re just friends, Yuto-nii, we’ve had this conversation before. I do not have a boyfriend because I’m only 14.” Reisi then sticks out his tongue and strides as regally as an awkward teen can to the front entrance before sitting down stiffly to await Mikoto and ignoring Yuta’s giggles with practiced ease.

**Several Hours Later:**

The smell of ash and the taste of soot would forever haunt Munakata Yuta and his little brothers Reisi and Mikoto.  The image of fire consuming a small restaurant would linger on in their minds and memories.  Ash drifts slowly down from the sky of the Akon district of Yukina City.  From a distance, it might be mistaken for snow, but it settles in a grey film across the whole city.  Two teens, just barely arrived from childhood, cling to each other in pure terror.  Tonight, their life was torn in two.  Today, they are made new by the fires that claimed the lives of so many around them.  Their names are Munakata Mikoto and Munakata Reisi, brothers by law but not by blood.  There is another with them, but he stands apart.  He is Munakata Yuta, oldest child of the Munakata family.  His parents have just died, but he does not know that yet.  All he knows is that a Red Clansman set the Akon District on fire in a fight with Scepter 4. Hearing that news he ran all the way from his home knowing his brothers were in the city.

“Fools,”  Mikoto whispers to Reisi, tears burned away by the oppressive heat.  “They should’ve stayed home, at least they’d be alive now.”  Reisi said nothing in return, simply held his brother closer.  Both of them know that their parents are dead.  

Right now, Yuta does not know what his younger brothers know.  He is unaware of anything, except the fire and the sound of wind.  Later, he will learn to hate his willful blindness and work hard to fix it.  This blind shock, he swears, will not claim him ever again when he is needed. He will work hard enough to be regarded as the most powerful spymaster in all of Japan and most of the Eastern World, but he is not that man yet.  For now, he is still a teen and not yet a man. A lost wandering child that will grow up hard and grow up fast.

In this moment, three people are defined.  Yuta will forever flinch at the smell of smoke or sight of fire, he will be a loving but distant brother to two people he will forever feel like he will never understand.  He will crave knowledge above everything and never let something so disastrous ever happen again.  Reisi, likewise, will fear fire for a while.  Until such a time as one of his closest friends becomes fire himself, then he will learn that such things as fires can be both loved and hated.  Fears, Reisi will learn, are there to be mastered.  And the third, Mikoto, learns that fire is destructive and beautiful.  Fire cannot and will not be controlled, but mindlessly consumes in the pursuit of its own goals.  He will remember this, even as he himself becomes fire.  He will remember this fire as the one that stole his second set of parents away, and he will remember when he becomes fire that he lost his best friend and brother.  To be fire is to be lost. To be fire is to have no home, for fire consumes that which contains it.

**Several Years Later:**

“The red aura is not some dog you can tame!”  Mikoto informs him coldly as his aura swirls around them both, like a wolf on the hunt.  “It is wild, it’s feral.  No amount of love will ever change it, Reisi.”  It is an old argument, but it has a new edge to it.  

The newly minted Blue King gazes dispassionately at his former brother, “And what makes you think the blue aura is any different, Mikoto?”  First names are thrown around like deadly barbs, daring the other to do something about it.  

Mikoto laughs his version of a laugh, something short and harsh.  “You’re standing.”

Words like that might have caused the old Reisi to pause and reconsider, but this one just tilts his head and puts a hand on his sword (forged in Mikoto’s own fire-the most backward compliment of all).  “I think you underestimate me, Mikoto.”

 


	2. The Orphan and the Ill One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As children, the Blue and Red Kings meet. One is ill, confined to his bed and room for fear of his health. The other is an orphan, escaping for just a second from his reality.

The tragedy of the Red and Blue Kings does not start where it ends. It starts years before, while Mikoto was known only as Mikoto and Reisi’s parents still lived. The shrine that witnessed the beginning of the Kings still stands today, guarded by the Munakata family.

It is spring and the shrine’s ground is in full bloom. People drift in and out, offering incense and purchasing the gods’ favor. Among them is a small group of orphans, huddled close to the orphanage mistress. One of them is missing.

Mikoto is a naturally curious five year old orphan who never stops moving. The shrine had offered him a perfect time to escape from the clutches of the orphanage matron and now he is exploring the shine house. He opens one of the doors and calls out, “Hello?” If anyone answers, he leaves usually. It is better not to be caught until it was time to return.

“Who are you?” A voice returns from the depths of the room. Mikoto, in direct contradiction to what he normally does, searches for the owner to the other voice, scanning the gloomy room. The shadows make the suggestion of a person though he cannot clearly see.

“I’m Mikoto.” He answers, trying to get a better view. “Who are you?” Curiosity-the bane of any five year old.

There is a pause, as though the other is contemplating an answer. But finally, it is granted. “Reisi.”

It seems natural to follow that with, “Where are you?” He likes to be able to look at who is he talking to.

“Come inside.” The voice replies, beckoning.

“Oh.” Now that he had permission, he stepped across the threshold and into the room. “Are you okay?” To him, a room was never something to be willingly taken to. Though the door had not been locked, so whoever was here was not here by force.

“I am fine.” Reisi returned. Now that Mikoto was closer to the source of the voice, he could tell it came from behind the small elevated futon in the corner.

“Why are you in here then?” Mikoto rather thought the other was crazy, willingly living inside.

Reisi thinks it over, considering whether to tell him or not. “Because I’m finishing a puzzle.”

“What kind of puzzle?” Mikoto asks, moving closer. He now stands at the foot of the futon.

“Why does it matter to you?” Reisi asks, in a manner Mikoto believes to be unnecessarily harsh.

“I’m bored.” What he did not say is that it seemed like anyone in here would be lonely. There had been no other children in the shrine that he had seen, just old people. Not that old people were bad, just that they were very boring.

There was the sound of shuffling, then Mikoto had to blink against the light. But now the room was well lit and he could see who he had been talking to the whole time. There was a small boy standing next to a lamp with a curious expression on his face. The futon Mikoto was standing by was messy and recently vacated.

“Hello.” Mikoto said. “Where’s your puzzle?” Reisi gestured to the floor, which now that Mikoto looked closely was not actually a mosaic, but a very large puzzle. “I’ll help you finish!” It did not occur to him to ask how Reisi could have been doing this in the dark, or why Reisi had been in bed at this time of day. Such things do not concern children, unless such child is plagued by it.

Reisi blinked, obviously surprised at the offer. But he inclined his head, and there was a small smile on his face. “Very well.” Mikoto sat down on the floor and soon the two were chatting like old friends as they assembled it. The oddities of their first meeting were soon lost to familiarity and friendliness. Any lingering hostility or fear melting into fond teasing and comfort.  
And that was the beginning of Mikoto and Reisi. Mikoto would later get in trouble for sneaking off and Reisi’s parents would worry about their son’s fragile health because the door had been left open, but that was later. Children live in the present, not the future, so the future did not concern them.


End file.
